Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What A New War in Korea Might Look Like
Globalsecurity ^ | John Pike

Posted on 12/27/2002 10:48:59 AM PST by maquiladora

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-54 last
To: Cate
Thanks for your kind remarks about my dad. I never heard him speak of his time in N. Korean POW camp until I was grown. He started going to POW conventions around the country and it helped him open up to us. The past several years he has quit attending, as the number of deaths of his fellow POW's has decreased their number.
 
All he knew was to come home (his family thought he was dead), start his own family and work hard every day for 40 years before retiring. As my brother and I know, our dad is the "Leader of the Band" and is the man we wish we could be.

41 posted on 12/28/2002 12:48:29 PM PST by covenantguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: Outlaw76
Why is everyone thinking in terms of land surface warfare?

Phase I: Tunnel under the DMZ (done, done, and done.) Did we find all of the tunnels? Have we effectively neutralized this threat? It only takes one.

If there are enough existing and surviving routes for underground infiltration, move special forces units and weapons caches into place behind main defensive lines. Utilize a coordinated unconventional, but non-nuclear attack to disrupt command and communications, supply, and defensive troops from the rear, also hitting airfields and fire support units (especially ammo storage), in concert with or slightly preceeding a frontal assault on those sectors which show the greatest disarray. Pin defensive forces against their own wire, while attacking from the front in conventional fashion.

Alternate Phase I: If only a few tunnels survive, and these are insufficient to infiltrate conventional or special forces, emplace and detonate nuclear device(s) under the main forward defensive areas. Attack on the surface. Use airbursts (Nuclear, tactical yield) to create background ionization to neutralize aerial detection and warfighting capability and/or take out specific targets.

The rest is pursuit and mop-up. Unfortunately, we are still trapped in the conventional-warfare, Maginot line mentality we were left with in what was the second phase of the war when my Dad fought there.

If they haven't already done so, it is time to start drilling holes in the ground and filling them with water.

42 posted on 12/28/2002 1:21:05 PM PST by Smokin' Joe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Steel Wolf
Chinese troops riding in the world's largest fleet of container vessels.
43 posted on 12/28/2002 1:23:41 PM PST by Smokin' Joe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe
Sure, that's possible in small numbers. The larger the number, the more likely that the troop movements would be noticed. If any armor is loaded, we'd know right away. So say its a straight infantry deal. That's an awfully big risk to land maybe five thousand guys per city.

How long do you think five thousand troops would last in LA? They wouldn't make it to West Hollywood before they were all shot up by every cop, gangbanger, Korean grocer, and lunatic there. What if once ship got caught, or was boarded? They'd have to execute it perfectly, knowing that once the jig was up, the US Navy would sink everything floating with a Chinese flag within about 12 hours. No resupply for you, comrade.

Aside from being a great way to piss us off, turn every liberal stronghold in the US against them, and waste a huge amount of material, troops, and ships in the process, there's no reason for them to try.

44 posted on 12/28/2002 3:56:15 PM PST by Steel Wolf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: Outlaw76
I have to wonder about how the DPRK's doctrine would fare in practice as well. North Korea is a totalitarian state, and more totalitarian than most. I'm sure that leadership/initiative is not highly prized, and those who show such traits are viewd with suspicion, if not eliminated outright. Therefore, I think we have reason to doubt the ability of the DPRK generals to conduct a successful campaign past the initial set-piece stage.

My very uneducated guess as to how this might go: The North Koreans achieve some early successes, but once the war starts deviating from the script, as it inevitably will, the DPRK offensive rapidly falls apart due to inability to adapt and improvise.

I think the remnansts of the North Korean military would probably do much better in a defensive fight on its own territory, making the regime change phase of a counteroffensive somewhat problematic. I can easily envision a replay of the WWII Pacific campaign, with fanatical North Korean defenders fighting from bunkers and caves long after any rational hope of victory is gone.
45 posted on 12/28/2002 4:19:32 PM PST by kms61
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: maquiladora
It sounds like absent our use of the bomb that North Korea has a winner. Lets avoid a land war in Asia.
46 posted on 12/28/2002 4:27:33 PM PST by AEMILIUS PAULUS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: montag813
Who gives a crap about South Korea? They all hate our guts there anyway. Let those commie bastard "students" who riot...

Ooopps. There goes the 3 year warranty on my Samsung monitor.

47 posted on 12/28/2002 4:34:27 PM PST by dennisw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
LOL! That was too funny!
48 posted on 12/28/2002 4:39:38 PM PST by Walkin Man
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: Mark17
If you are worried about an invasion, stop worrying. They can't get here from there.

The NK army may not be able to invade the continental USA but we have about 30,000 troops on the DMZ who could lose their lives and I believe NK has missiles that can reach the western US. Load up a few of those with bio, chem or possibly, nuke warheads and you can see the NK threat to the US.

49 posted on 12/28/2002 4:46:10 PM PST by Walkin Man
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Walkin Man
I own a Samsung monitor and it has entered my mind that my warranty just might go pooooft!
50 posted on 12/28/2002 4:51:23 PM PST by dennisw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: kms61
My very uneducated guess as to how this might go: The North Koreans achieve some early successes, but once the war starts deviating from the script, as it inevitably will, the DPRK offensive rapidly falls apart due to inability to adapt and improvise.

For an uneducated guess, it's right on the money. The KPA chain of command is the most inflexible system imaginable. Their battlefield commanders are expected to execute their orders to the letter, and do nothing without express consent and direction from higher.

The U.S. system is decentralized, with great lattitude and freedom given to lower echelon commanders to get the job done. Even the old Soviet order of battle was somewhat flexible, if overly formulaic. The Korean People's Army, on the other hand, doesn't move without orders, takes no initiative, and exploits no opportunities. Their training exercises are rote, the outcome is known before they start.

While they'd be able to inflict massive damage due to brute strength at the onset of the war, they don't have the flexibility to take advantage of early battlefield successes and press the attack.

The number of 1.2 million troops is not entirely accurate, either. That's just their active duty regular Army. For rear echelon troops, they have the Red Guards militia, a standing active duty militia force of 750,000. Also, there are the Worker-Peasant Red Guards, around 4 million total, which is basically everyone who can shoulder a rifle and throw a grenade. Finally they have the Red Youth Guards, another 1 million or so teenage militia combatants. Many of the militia units have heavy machine guns, ADA, and other types of high end military equipment that makes them more then just armed peasents.

51 posted on 12/28/2002 4:58:43 PM PST by Steel Wolf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: montag813
Damn him and his sycophant soccer mom supporters all to hell.

This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens -- leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children.

It's worth reminding these too-stupid-to-be-actually-treasonous soccer sluts that HORROR of all HORRORS - they didn't let many little Kurdish girls go to school!! That's because they're dead from poison gas. A fact which fails to register with these sentimentalist demwits.

52 posted on 12/28/2002 7:54:08 PM PST by guitfiddlist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Steel Wolf
Have you ever noticed how the most heinous gun laws are in states with the best port facilities? New York, California, Maryland, which leaves the Gulf Coast and pac northwest.

5,000 reasonably well armed and trained infantry with light support vehicles with recoiless rifles, mortars, machine guns and grenade launchers could create unspeakable mayhem in the right neighborhoods. Set a tactical nuke or very large conventional charges on the boat or in stacked (or 'planted') containers to take out the waterfront, the gangbangers, etc.

Infiltrate, then pop the op with mayhem in upscale neighborhoods. The panic would do half the work, the looters would do the rest. Control of Communications, Mass Media, water, power, and gas distribution facilities would be the critical infrastructure factor, plus a few key highway interchanges. Cities are far easier than out in the boonies, where terrain familiarity,arms familiarity, and dispersed populations make for more difficult targets. Difficult in the sticks to make the panic work for you.

Remember, the Chinese got caught shipping a bunch of AKs to the gangbangers a few years back, so who will be loyal to whom?

The invasion does not have to be a success in and of itself, if it ties up critical resources and permits the primary objective to be attained, namely the conquest of South Korea.

53 posted on 12/29/2002 1:11:56 AM PST by Smokin' Joe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Mark17
I read too many military novels I guess. Subs off shore......
54 posted on 12/29/2002 4:45:53 AM PST by Jackie222
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-54 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson